- Brilliantly acted and exquisitely shot, Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel will undoubtably stand the test of time.

Full Disclosure: I believe I read the novel Little Women in 4th or 5th grade, but I don’t remember a damn thing about it. As a prepubescent boy, the title Little Women didn't exactly grab me, and I was unable to appreciate it for the literary classic that it was. Fast forward to 2020, and I still wasn’t all that stoked to see this adaptation. I was, however, intrigued by the stellar cast. When it received a staggering six Oscar nominations, I felt compelled to give it a watch.

Review

For the uninitiated, Little Women is a family drama that deals with the every day lives of a group of four sisters in Civil War-era New England. It covers a myriad of themes, such as love and loss, independence, domesticity, sibling rivalry, and above all, the unbreakable bonds of family. Little Women is about the March family and, more specifically, the four March sisters: Jo (Saoirse Ronan), Meg (Emma Watson), Amy (Florence Pugh), and Beth (Eliza Scanlen). While their unnamed father (Bob Odenkirk) is off fighting Johnny Reb in the name of the Union, the care of the four girls falls to their mother, nicknamed Marmee (Laura Dern). The March sisters’ personalities couldn’t be more different from one another, and that makes for some very compelling drama. The interplay between the sisters as they grow from girls to women over the course of the film (which spans approximately seven years) is the beating heart of the story. Rounding out the all-star cast is rising star Timothée Chalamet as Theodore “Laurie” Laurence, Chris Cooper as Mr. Laurence, and the legendary Meryl Streep as Aunt March.

The four March sisters in a rare moment of genuine unity and shared happiness.

Jo is the headstrong, independent, tomboyish sister and the protagonist of the story. She despises traditional gender roles and quite rightly believes that men and women should be given equal opportunities to make their own way in life. She hates the idea of domesticity, and longs to be a self-made woman who doesn’t have to rely on a man to take care of her. She’s highly intelligent and wishes to parlay her skill with the written word into a career as an author.

Meg is the most traditionally-minded sister. Domesticity and raising a family are her primary goals in life, despite the fact that she has a real talent for stage acting. She’s a romantic, even if it’s a detriment to her comfort later on. She enjoys the finer things in life, but not at the expense of marrying a man she’s truly in love with.

Amy is a jealous, petty, petulant brat, but she has ambition. She has a knack for painting, and obsessively cultivates that talent. By her own admission, she wants to be “great or nothing”. She and Jo are two sides of the same coin, which is why they constantly butt heads. Amy has always played second fiddle to Jo, so the jealousy Amy feels towards her big sister is understandable and not unfounded.

Beth is sweet, shy, and sickly. She also happens to be a prodigy on the piano. The fiercely strong personalities of her other three sisters leave her with the role of mediator. She’s the only one who always gets along with the other three.

At first glance, it may seem hard to believe that four people who share the same parents and were raised under the same roof could be so different. Anyone who has siblings, however, will know the struggle. It’s extremely rare to find siblings who share similar interests and goals. It might be why the story of Little Women is so timeless. It’s so relatable. You could pluck these characters from the 1860’s and place them anywhere in time and the story would still work. It’s why this story has been adapted no less than seven times for the big screen over the years. The theme of female independence in the face of traditional gender norms is as relevant today as it’s ever been. While I must confess that I haven’t seen any of the other adaptations, I’m convinced that this will be the defining one and the one that truly stands the test of time.

All four of these actresses deserve praise for their outstanding performances in bringing these sisters to life.

In lesser hands, this film could’ve easily fallen into melodramatic, “Hallmark Movie of the Week” territory. A story about the trials and tribulations of domesticity for young women in the 1860’s doesn’t exactly scream “excitement”. In the deft hands of the masterful writer/director Greta Gerwig though, the material is elevated to a level that the other film adaptations of Little Women could only dream of. Gerwig is a true auteur, building off the success of her 2017 debut runaway hit Lady Bird. She’s undeniably batting a thousand as a prodigious writer and director. To have your first two films both be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture is a truly remarkable achievement. The sky really is the limit for her.

It’s only a matter of time before people stop referring to Greta Gerwig as a “great female director” and start giving her props as a “great director”.

The cast of Little Women is simply phenomenal from top-to-bottom. It’s a good thing, too. With a deeply intimate character story such as this, one miscast and the whole film would come tumbling down like a drunken game of Jenga. The movie is utterly dependent on the chemistry between the characters, and this adaptation nails it on every level. The love quadrangle between Jo, Meg, Amy, and Laurie is compelling because Timothée Chalamet has chemistry with all three of the actresses. That’s a testament to the director, the casting director, and the actors involved. Chalamet has a boyish charm, but his eyes are those of an old soul. It’s a balance that’s hard to strike, which is why he is fast becoming one of the best actors of his generation.

If Saoirse Ronan keeps this up, she will go down in history as the greatest actress to ever grace the silver screen. It sounds outrageous, I know. After all, she’s only 25 years old. That said, she already has four Oscar nominations. She has a timeless quality about her that will never be out of style. She excels in independent dramas as well as prestigious period pieces. Like Chalamet, she’s an old soul in a young body. If she and Gerwig continue to collaborate on this level, Gerwig and Ronan could go down in history as the next Scorsese and De Niro. They have clearly found an artistic connection that every collaborative artist dreams of. I just can’t wait to see what the future holds for this pairing of incredible artists.

Two of this century’s greatest actors face off in an emotionally charged, climactic scene.

Spoilers Ahead

Since I didn’t remember anything from the novel, I was genuinely surprised by some of the major plot points. First and foremost, I’m glad that Amy winds up with Laurie, rather than Jo. The audience is obviously meant to root for the Jo/Laurie pairing, but as Jo so astutely points out, it would never work long-term. They’re too much alike. They’re both too free-spirited and headstrong. Amy will appreciate and love Laurie in a way that Jo never could. Jo’s too self-absorbed. That’s not a bad thing necessarily, it just makes for bad relationship material. Having Jo settle down is a copout, but in this film it’s done with a wink and a nod to a modern audience who is far more prepared to accept the intended ending of Jo flying solo than an audience in the 19th century was.

The psyche-out fantasy sequence where we’re meant to think that Beth survives her bout with scarlet fever didn’t seem cheap or heavy-handed, as many dream sequences do. I figured that Beth wasn’t long for this world since dramatic novels set in this time period almost always have a central character die from scarlet fever, smallpox, consumption, or some other such archaic disease, but the fake-out made Beth’s demise doubly painful.

After a bit of research, I found out that the original novel does not contain the time hops that this film does. This just proves that Greta Gerwig is a fucking genius! To take a classic novel and completely switch the format to tell a nonlinear story is as bold as it is brilliant. She could have stuck with the plan and made a perfectly fine movie, but by skipping back and forth through time, she made a damn good, borderline great movie. Novels can meander and go on tangents that explore characters and their backstories. Films do not have that luxury. One of the worst criticisms one can give a film is that it’s “plodding” or “slow”. By keeping us on our toes through these time hops, this film keeps a brisk pace that never seems slow. The transitions between times are so seamless that we don’t need title cards to lazily tell us what year we’re in. It was a truly great decision by a filmmaker who is confident and secure in her ability to relay this story in a fresh way that’s never been attempted before. Gerwig and her flawless cast managed to make a classic film from a classic novel, a feat that’s much harder than it sounds and almost impossible to achieve.

Watson (left), Pugh (center), and Ronan (right) all have insanely bright futures ahead of them.

5 Quick Hits

Emma Stone was briefly attached to play Meg, and had to be replaced by Emma Watson due to Stone’s commitment to working on The Favourite. While I like Watson and I’ve never seen her turn in a bad performance, I’ve yet to see her turn in a great performance. I can’t help but imagine what could have been if Emma Stone had seen this through. Stone, who is brilliant in anything she ever does, could have really elevated this role and even nabbed an Oscar nom for this meaty part.
It was nice to see Meryl Streep take a step back and let the younger generation take the majority of the screen time. I’m not saying she had much say here, but it’s cool that she took a smaller part when she’s been Hollywood’s number one leading lady for forty years. Attaching her name to a project, no matter how small the part, will always raise its prestige.
I have to take a minute and praise my girl Florence Pugh. After seeing her in four movies over the last two years (The Outlaw King, Fighting with My Family, Midsommar, and Little Women), she has become my favorite young up-and-coming actress. I’m convinced that she can play anyone from any time and excel in any genre. She has a magnetism that simply cannot be taught. This superlative gets overused, but she really is a natural. With this film in particular, she manages to take what could’ve been a stereotypical jealous bitch character and gives her nuance and relatable emotion that makes you see the world through Amy March’s eyes. I predicted an Oscar nomination in Pugh’s near future in my review of Midsommar, and here we are. Less than six months later, my prophecy materialized in the form of an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Laura Dern is having a career renaissance that hasn’t been seen since Matthew McConaughey’s “McConaissance”. With parts in this past year’s Marriage Story and Little Women, as well as Big Little Lies on the small screen, the “Dernaissance” is in full swing, and I’m all for it.
Chris Cooper is stringing together a series of understated, yet powerful performances. His supporting roles in Little Women and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood are reminding people that he’s a terrific actor whose best years may still be in front of him as he ages into grandfatherly roles.